- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (July 29 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345447530
- ISBN-13: 978-0345447531
- Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 3.2 x 24.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,274,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Satisfaction is a commodity in short supply for the myriad characters populating Done for a Dime, private eye-turned-author David Corbett's affecting follow-up to his debut novel, The Devil's Redhead. Among the significantly short-changed is Raymond "Strong" Carlisle, an irascible black saxophonist who used to play with the giants of blues music, but now does only about four gigs a year, "if he’s lucky, with a bunch of sorry old men the business forgot long ago." When Carlisle is shot dead at his home in Rio Mirada, an increasingly crime-plagued burg north of San Francisco, the cops, including lead detective Dennis Murchison and his racist partner, Jerry Stluka, figure it's the tragic result of a nightclub fight he'd provoked the evening before. Their two prime suspects: Arlie Thigpen, a gang tough employed by a local drug dealer; and Toby Marchand, Carlisle's musician son, who'd chafed under his elder's incessant tauntings, and whose white teenage lover, Nadya Lazarenko, witnessed the homicide--but is too traumatized to remember anything about it. However, Carlisle's death is merely a harbinger of worse troubles to come, among them a neighborhood-destroying fire engineered by greedy developers.
Regrettably, that cinematic hillside conflagration diverts attention from Corbett's more interesting study of people trying to cope with the inequitable vicissitudes of life. Murchison, for instance, comes off as a conflicted mix of determination and desperation, a man terminally unable to fulfill the expectations of his wife and parents. For Marchand, the challenge is to reject his late father's cynicism and find hope in Nadya's embrace, even as she refuses to trust in something so ephemeral as happiness. Other well-formed players here--from a suspect's strong-willed mother, to a smart and fetching lawyer who confuses Murchison's heart, to a cop-turned-hired killer who isn't so transparently evil as he initially appears--struggle to achieve their own forms of justice in an unjust world. Corbett has a sharp ear for street dialogue and an even sharper understanding of human emotion and pain. For a book that's all about dissatisfaction, Done for a Dime is decidedly satisfying. --J. Kingston Pierce
From Publishers Weekly
Corbett (The Devil's Redhead) again uses some of the traditional tools of genre fiction in bold new ways in his sharp and exceptionally poignant second suspense novel. The feeling of a community under siege-in this case, a shabby but lively multiracial town called Rio Mirada, just north of San Francisco-comes straight from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, as concerned citizens and families trying to live decently come under attack from the forces of organized greed. There's a touch of Jim Thompson in the main villain, a hired thug calling himself Richard Ferry, who turns out not to be quite as detestable as he first appears. And Ross Macdonald might have created the head cop, a local detective named Murchison, who isn't as smart or as liberal as Macdonald's PI Lew Archer but nevertheless has aspirations to similar levels of achievement and humanity. The story begins with the murder of cantankerous black jazz musician Raymond "Strong" Carlisle, shot down in his front yard. Murchison and his racist partner, Stluka, have two suspects: Carlisle's son, also a talented jazzman, and a local gang member who is lucky enough to have a tough and resourceful mother to defend him. Corbett introduces such a large cast of characters in this sweeping narrative (including the cameo return of ex-con Dan Abatangelo from The Devil's Redhead) that some of them don't get enough time on stage. But the ones that do will linger in readers' thoughts for a long time.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
Every black-and-white to be spared had come, seven of the ten on graveyard, drawn in once the watch commander broke the Code 33. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Every black-and-white to be spared had come, seven of the ten on graveyard, drawn in once the watch commander broke the Code 33. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Confusing,
By bill runyon (Indiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Done for a Dime (Hardcover)
The author has presented what, on the surface, seems like amurder mystery as an older musician is shot in the back and killed, for no apparent good reason, and the local cops start their tedious process of questioning everyone. But he goes much beyond that, and the story becomes quite complex, as to both the characters, as well as their motivations. So, in those senses, this can be a good read, and many people will enjoy the complex story and the serious development of many characters. However, the author has a strange way of trying to engage our interest, because he engages in so much "in" lingo, it's difficult to follow who all these people are and what they are
1.0 out of 5 stars
"Put down your gun, Mister," I'm P.C. to the max.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Done for a Dime (Hardcover)
Praised by such bastions of fair-mindedness as the N.Y. Times, I read this book knowing what to expect and was not disappointed. I would like to use more colorful language, but will settle for this very apt cliche: "This book wears its emotions and liberal bonafides on its sleeves." The writing is passable, but the story and, more importantly, the philosophy underlying it, is didactic mush. Another James Lee Burke clone who never met a liberal cause he didn't like. Virtually unreadable.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, passionate, and compelling,
By A Customer
This review is from: Done for a Dime (Hardcover)
David Corbett's story of the murder of a jazz musician is an utterly compelling read from start to finish. The deadly consequences of the initial killing, the aching hearts of the survivors, the alternating brutality and compassion of the all-too-human policemen - all are rendered in powerful, vivid prose that makes no compromises. Readers looking for crime fiction on a par with Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER need look no further than this terrific novel.
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